building media center PC for customer

[ITG Tech]

Today one of my customers asked me to give him a proposal on building a multimedia PC. I got a rough idea what he wants in general terms, and will start building it on paper in the next few days. I guess we will explore using Windows 7 media center and he mentioned installing snow leopard too. I am looking for ideas on what features are available and understand that most depend on the software. If anyone wants to jump in and provide some suggestions on putting together a media center I would appreciate it. I asked if he was interested in a Name Brand PC because I am a reseller for Acer, Dell, and HP. But he said he wanted a custom built job.
I asked him for a ball park figure on what he expected the system to cost and he said “ between $400 ~ $1000”. I am thinking that he will not get much for this price range and I don’t want to put in low quality components.

 

[DohIForgot]

You don't need a huge amount of processing power, but load up on memory, if the budget will allow. You'll also need all the SATAII headers you can for disk space. 500GB drives are dirt cheap right now, but go 1TB if you can. You'll want a minimum of 1.5TB or so. Make sure you have a DVD player installed and a TV header card that accepts at least 2+ cable connnections so multiple channels can be recorded. I personaly ran with 3 streams at once until I needed a spare PCI slot. Um, get whatever graphics card will work against his TV - at least a 250mb card or higher. I ran a wireless N card off the back of mine to connect to the internet to download windows updates and TV updates.

I used SageTV to record shows, seemed the easiest to deal with. Remote is up to you, but I liked the StreamZap (needs to run under Admin mode as well as SageTV).

Make sure you get the guys TV and cable type. Unless you can run cable straight into the box, you're going to need a cable box blaster and possibly several cable boxes to record content....

 

[dhrandy]

You could be a great system for around $700. It just depends on how many tuners and hard drive space (shows to record) that he wants.

Unless he's a computer enthusiast I would recommend him doing some reading up on HTPC systems. It takes a lot of tinkering to get everything to run smooth, unless he's just going to be doing DVR.

I've had one call from someone that wanted to build a HTPC. I proposed to him a build and gave him some links to read up on. I told him he was responsible for purchasing and setting up the software. The only software I could explain anything about was the software that I use on my HTPC (XBMC and Beyond TV).

Things I recommend for a HTPC.

80+ Power Supply
45 Watt Processor
Hauppauge Tuners with remote support
Blu-ray player
Motherboard with DVI or HDMI output
Motherboard with digital sound output

 

[14049752]

and he mentioned installing snow leopard too

So....he wants a Mac? Don't install that on a PC for him, ok? That's not cool.


As far as the media center, though; Definitely get a card with HDMI with digital audio. ATI cards are good for that....the last I checked, nvidia dropped the ball. It might also be a good idea to have a second, quick hard drive dedicated to playback and recording. Media Center uses the hard drive constantly even when watching live television, because it's keeping that buffer going so you can rewind. Finally, don't forget the nice ir sensor and remote in your quote.

 

[ITG Tech]

Thanks for the suggestion and ideas.

 

[RitechSystems]

Does he have HD? Does he want it on his HTPC? How does he get his HD, OTA antenna, Cable, or Sat?

For Sat, there is no solution currently.
If it is OTA he'll need an ATSC tuner card in the PC.
If it is Cable and he wants only Clear QAM (unencrypted, usually only the local networks) he'll need a tuner card with QAM in the PC.

If he has cable and wants all his HD channels, the only solution is a cable card solution which last I knew were only available in OEM PCs like HP, and may not be available from all cable companies.

I use an Avermedia AVerTV Combo PCIe in mine. It is ATSC, NTSC and ClearQAM.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815100015

 

[Morrison5891]

Here are a few plug-ins for Media Center and some icons, etc ... I use these for clients when I build a Custom Media Center PC. Keep in mind, you wont get 1080p with OTA or cable. 1080p isnt broadcast. Only 1080p is available with blue-ray, etc ...

http://cid-2e99f952978d6b09.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/Media Center

 

[JosephLeo]

Apart from the Snow Leopard thing, I would reccomend this...

Sony PlayStation 3 Slim - $299.99 + Shipping

Sony PlayStation 3 BluRay Disk Remote Controller - $19.99 + Shipping

Western Digital 2.5" Laptop SATA Hard Drive (5400 RPM) - $89.99 + Shipping

10' HDMI Cable - $6.99 + Shipping

Total: $416.97

So for ~$420 + Shipping you can either get really crummy hardware, no bluray, no wireless network adapter, no remote, and certainly no gaming. Also you risk the possibility of not being 1080p friendly

Or, get a complete HTPC + Game Console + Best BluRay player on the market. In a very small (relative to an HTPC) package.

The only feature you don't get is DVR, which is why there is TiVO. I wouldn't be surprised to see this in the PlayStation 4 and the next Microsoft game console.

 

[ITG Tech]

Thanks again to all that responded and provided suggestions.

 

[Blues]

Apart from the Snow Leopard thing, I would reccomend this...

Sony PlayStation 3 Slim - $299.99 + Shipping

Sony PlayStation 3 BluRay Disk Remote Controller - $19.99 + Shipping

Western Digital 2.5" Laptop SATA Hard Drive (5400 RPM) - $89.99 + Shipping

10' HDMI Cable - $6.99 + Shipping

Total: $416.97

So for ~$420 + Shipping you can either get really crummy hardware, no bluray, no wireless network adapter, no remote, and certainly no gaming. Also you risk the possibility of not being 1080p friendly

Or, get a complete HTPC + Game Console + Best BluRay player on the market. In a very small (relative to an HTPC) package.

The only feature you don't get is DVR, which is why there is TiVO. I wouldn't be surprised to see this in the PlayStation 4 and the next Microsoft game console.

I would also add most shows can be bought or rented on the playstation network as well you can setup to read from a media server. The only real downside is no Hulu on PS3 as one or both parties are blocking it.

 

[Tweak]

I would also add most shows can be bought or rented on the playstation network as well you can setup to read from a media server. The only real downside is no Hulu on PS3 as one or both parties are blocking it.

Fancast might be a good Hulu alternative.

 

[coooolsome]

Something to keep in mind if you are going the Intel route, the motherboards with the 4500HD chipset can handle 1080p output and sound out of the HDMI connector. This will remove the need for a dedicated video card which you don't need unless he wants to play intensive games.

I also sent you a PM

 

[Blues]

If you are going for 1080p and Blu-Ray then I would look at getting AuzenTech X-Fi Home Theater HD sound card. This would make it a bit more expensive but give you full HD Audio and Video.

 

[thor999]

Why are you even thinking of Windows at this point??!? If you are going to start building HTPC's, then you must now learn Linux my friend! The benefits are truly endless... I can turn mine on w/ a remote The performance difference alone is worth the investment in time, you will never look back... Start out w/ a stable version, and make sue what you dl is right by checking the hash file.

 

[JosephLeo]

Why are you even thinking of Windows at this point??!? If you are going to start building HTPC's, then you must now learn Linux my friend! The benefits are truly endless... I can turn mine on w/ a remote The performance difference alone is worth the investment in time, you will never look back... Start out w/ a stable version, and make sue what you dl is right by checking the hash file.

LinuxMCE, MythTV & Mythbuntu are all very clunky to me, the fact that there are multiple designers on all of those projects make the user interface non-uniform and the fact that I have to actually use a PC without being able to use "PC Software" (Windows software) is a real drawback to most consumers. This is the reason the HTPC never took off, people hear the "PC" part not the "HT" so they want a Home Theater PC, not a Home Theater Entertainment Center...their already existing Blu-ray player, DVR and Game Console can already do that.

Also, take a look at this scenario.

People don't look at the total cost of all their equipment, instead they look at the individual cost and then decide if it's worth it for them.

For example; While a HTPC can do everything a Blu-ray player and DVR can (as some Games under linux, and most games under windows) people will be distracted by the price.

An HTPC will cost them $600 to $1,000 on average.
Whereas the total of a blu-ray player, dvr and game console will cost them twice as much, they will still go with the latter option because they feel they are getting more for their money, as well as "saving money" since a blu-ray player only cost $200, a pvr only cost $300 and a game console only cost them $300. and in some cases they are even correct about money savings.

 

[thor999]

Well then how about a "media server" pc and Popcorn Hour, or a 360 and tVersity? I have a PC that is on 24/7, and I stream media to 2 360's in separate areas of my house w/ ease. Fact is, you probably won't build too many HTPC's anytime soon, but it would definitely behoove you to play w/ Linux; obviously you want to build one, otherwise you wouldn't be on Technibble asking questions about it! Trust me, once you get it right (and may require some add'tl hardware purchases) a Linux install is unbeatable, and if you can get it into the customer's hands, remaster.sys makes for easy money in the future! Also, I did build an HTPC w/ DVI out and tuner card, 1tb drive for under $500.00 recently. Watching it right now, got it to power down until a show I want to record comes on, then powers back down again, works w/ a $13.00 remote. Just sayin'